Beneath The Racial Attacks On Obama Lurks An Assault On The New Deal

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.politicususa.com/en/race-obama-new-deal



Thirty years ago the new conservative movement was ushered in with the presidency of Ronald Reagan that signaled the fight to change the nature of American government from a pseudo-democracy to a full-fledged oligarchy. This conservative movement desired to return to pre-New Deal thinking where a few wealthy industrialists held most of the wealth and political power, and working Americans were fortunate to have employment to provide for their families. The New Deal changed all that by providing old-age security, decent working conditions, organized labor, and the opportunity to fare better than the previous generation.

Conservatives have tried various tactics to eliminate New Deal programs, and since Reagan, have chipped away at democracy by transferring power from the people to wealthy industrialists and financiers. It has taken thirty years, but Republicans emboldened by hatred for a Black president, have made their final assault in Congress and statehouses around the country to relegate working Americans to little more than slave status.

It is not that Republicans haven’t tried to transfer wealth and power to corporations and the rich; they just didn’t have the public’s animus in place to use as a wedge between the government and working people. The election of Barack Obama in 2008 provided the wedge Republicans needed to separate the goodness inherent in most people from the dark, racist inclinations of many Americans. The suspicious nature of groups like teabaggers and hard-line conservatives was easy to manipulate as long as Republicans could perpetuate the myth that an African-American interloper stole the presidency and illegally occupied a place reserved for white Christian males.

Ronald Reagan fostered suspicion and contempt for the government during his first inaugural address where he related his belief that, “government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.” Republicans have used the small government is better to great effect since Reagan, but have reaped huge rewards since President Obama’s first days in office. For two years, Republicans effectively brought the government to a halt by obstructing legislation, judicial appointments, and even a nuclear arms treaty for the sole purpose of besmirching the record and reputation of the president. However, it was the president’s New Deal-like health care reform law that Republicans used to paint him as a socialist who was eliminating Americans’ ability to choose their own health care. The hate-mongers in the Republican Party parlayed hatred for a Socialist African-American president into sweeping victories in the 2010 midterm elections, and beginning in January began an unprecedented assault on the American people.

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